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Showing posts from March, 2020

When Students Rise, Tyrants Tremble

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By Struan Stevenson Throughout modern history, student uprisings have served as one of the clearest indicators that a regime has entered its final and most dangerous phase. Young people possess a unique capacity to sense political decay long before many others. They see through propaganda, reject hollow promises, and refuse to accept a future stolen by corruption, repression, and incompetence. When students pour onto the streets in large numbers, authoritarian rulers have every reason to fear the consequences. The latest wave of protests sweeping Tehran, Mashhad, and Hamedan should therefore ring alarm bells throughout Iran’s ruling establishment. Thousands of students have risen in defiance of discriminatory educational policies, arbitrary changes to university entrance regulations, and mounting pressures imposed by a regime increasingly detached from the realities facing ordinary citizens. Their demands concern far more than examinations and academic records. These demonstrations r...
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Iran: Containing COVID-19 Depends on Political Change Before International Aid

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As reports revealed that Iran has one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, the ayatollahs expelled the team of Doctors Without Borders (MSF). This sudden decision raised skepticism over whether they really intend to fight the virus, or whether they pursue other objectives under the excuse of containing COVID-19? Normally, each state would warmly welcome any international aid to protect its people in such a status quo. However, the Iranian regime government’s contradictory remarks beg the question: what’s the exact demand of the  Iranian rulers ? On March 12, the Central Bank of Iranian regime asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for $5 billion emergency funding to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In this respect, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pleaded with Mrs. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF for a “Rapid Financial Instrument.” “Our Central Bank requested access to this facility immediately,” Zarif claimed on Twitter. Simul...
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Floods Kill Dozens in Iran

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By Jubin Katiraie Dozens of people have been killed and injured in the horrific floods that are spreading across 19 Iranian provinces and causing gave damage to areas already hit hard by the government’s 40 years of neglect. The floods have hit residential areas and farms, which will affect food supply, in Bushehr, Chahar Mahal & Bakhtiari, East Azerbaijan, Fars, Golestan, Gilan, Hormozgan, Kerman, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmed, Mazandaran, Markazi (Central), North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Semnan, Sistan & Baluchistan, Qazvin, and Qom. This is especially difficult because it is happening at the same time (and in many of the same places) as the  coronavirus pandemic  is overwhelming the healthcare system and grinding the already-dire economy to a halt. Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi expressed her condolences to those who have lost loved ones, houses, and their livelihood to the floods. Rajavi, the head of the Natio...
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Forgery in Iran Claims Many Lives Amid Coronavirus

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By Pooya Stone As Iran’s death toll of the novel coronavirus climbs daily, government-linked profiteers deceived a significant number of citizens who look for a precautionary substance. In this context, a resident of Tabriz, a major city in northwestern Iran, provided a shocking report about the impact of this forgery. “In Sina hospital, eight persons have died of fake methanol poisoning,” the source said. He also mentioned the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)’s role in presenting the fabricated alcohol as a medicine against the  coronavirus . “IRGC agents mix industrial alcohol with bleach to make a white color fluid. They sell it to the people as medical alcohol in free markets and pharmacies. Subsequently, citizens, who don’t have information, buy and use this substance that causes their death,” the Tabrizi resident added. Notably, stats say that thousands of people have been poisoned with this fabricated fluid and hundreds have died across the country so far. Poor people fel...
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